(75d) Renewable Macroporous Nanocomposites Via Emulsion Templating

Open porous polymer foams have been synthesised via the polymerisation of high internal phase emulsions (HIPE). HIPEs are defined as emulsions having an internal phase volume of at least 74 %. Commonly, HIPEs consists of relatively uniform, polyhedral, aqueous droplets, separated by thin films of continuous monomer phase. The polymerisation of the continuous organic phase of HIPEs leads to open porous polymer foams so called polyHIPEs. PolyHIPEs gained increasing interest due to their unique properties such as low density, high porosity and high degree of interconnectivity. PolyHIPEs offer exciting opportunities for membrane applications in harsh environments as alternative to hollow fibre membrane modules and even in tissue engineering, i.e. as scaffolds. PolyHIPEs have also been explored for use as absorbents, demulsifiers and catalyst supports in solid phase chemistry. Here we report on the synthesis of nanocomposites foams based on renewable resources. We used acrylated soy bean oil as main component of the continuous monomer phase of the emulsion template. Furthermore, modified bacteria cellulose was added to either phase as nanoscale reinforcement of the resulting polymer foams. We are able to produce more environmentally friendly systems which might be suitable replacements of commonly used petrochemical based polymer foams.